In reality, social policies come about through a mixture of pragmatics, principle, public opinion, politicking, and sheer accident. But in the ideal world of welfare economics,1 we could rationally decide whether to implement a policy by looking at its impact … Continue reading
Would you be happier if you found out that you earned more than other people at your workplace – particularly the people who do the same job as you? For obvious reasons, questions about relative pay have been around a … Continue reading
In a guest post, Daniel Sage asks how the UK Coalition have found it so easy to cut benefits for the poor. When the UK Chancellor brands benefit cheats as “muggers” and Arts Minister Jeremy Hunt asserts that the State … Continue reading
When voters go to the polls on November 2nd, they won’t just be voting for national offices. Across the country there are many tightly contested state elections. While these races do not garner as much attention, they are arguably more … Continue reading
Every day, new readers find out about the Inequalities Blog from Facebook. Do you like the blog in real life? Then like us on Facebook! Don’t forgot to subscribe (see the panel on the right, tweet about us, comment, and … Continue reading
Kendra Bischoff argues that high-stakes tests can play an important role in evaluating student performance, but they can also unintentionally promote educational inequality. The U.S. education system is currently in a state of flux as the Obama administration pushes reform, … Continue reading
American liberals don’t like talking about the “culture of poverty.” The very term evokes some of the most distorted and racist images of the ghetto and its stock characters — the deadbeat dad, the welfare queen, and the criminal youth. … Continue reading
The official unemployment rate is a bad measure of the labor market in a down economy — we should think about using existing alternatives and devising some new ones. The monthly unemployment reports from the United States Department of Labor … Continue reading
With U.S. mid-term elections coming up, and most reliable forecasts showing that Democrats will likely lose the majority in the House and several seats in the Senate, there’s a big unanswered question about whether there is scope to advance a … Continue reading
(1) A problem we often face as researchers is to cope with an overwhelming amount of information on different measures of different types of inequality. As I posted earlier in the week, we need high-quality statistics – but we also … Continue reading
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